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LINCOLN AND SICKLES 




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PUBLISHED BY THE 

"THIRD ARMY CORPS UNION 

For Distribution to its members 
IWIAY, 1910. 



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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF THE 
COMMISSIONER OF RAILROADS. 

Washington, September 19, 1902. 

General D. E. Sickles, 

Gettysburg, Pa. 

My Dear General Sickles: 

My plan and desire was to meet you at Gettysburg on the 
interesting ceremony attending the unveiHng of the Slocum 
monument ; but to-day I find myself in no condition to keep the 
promise made you when last we were together. I am quite 
disabled from a severe hurt in one of my feet, so that I am 
unable to stand more than a minute or two at a time. Please 
express my sincere regrets to the noble Army of the Potomac, 
and to accept them, especially, for yourself. 

On that field you made your mark that will place you promi- 
nently before the world as one of the leading figures of the 
most important battle of the Civil War. As a Northern vet- 
eran once remarked to me: "General Sickles can well afford 
to leave a leg on that field." 

I believe that it is now conceded that the advanced position 
at the Peach Orchard, taken by your corps and under your 
orders saved that battlefield to the Union cause. It was the 
sorest and saddest reflection of my life for many years; but, 
to-day I can say, with sincerest emotion, that it was and is the 
best that could have come to us all. North and South; and I 
hope that the nation, re-united, may always enjoy the honor 
and glory brought to it by that grand work. 

Please offer my kindest salutations to your Governor and 
your fellow-comrades of the Army of the Potomac. 

Always yours sincerely, 

(Signed) James Longstreet, 

Lt.-Gen'l. Confederate Army. 
A True Copy, 

D. E. Sickles, Major General U. S. Army, Retired, 
New York March 12, 1910. 



THE 46th ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING 
of the 3D ARMY CORP UNION. 



The interesting remarks prepared by General James F. 
RusHng in regard to an historic meeting of President Abraham 
Lincoln and Major-General Daniel E. Sickles, at Washington, 
just after the latter had lost his leg at Gettysburg, were, on 
motion of the members of the Third Army Corps Union, at 
their regular annual meeting in the Manhattan Hotel, New 
York City, ordered to be printed and to be read by General 
James R. O'Beirne, at the Banquet, in the unavoidable absence 
of General Rusling. The interest of the occasion was en- 
hanced by the fact that General O'Beirne is the only living 
survivor of the officers who were present at the death-bed 
of President Lincoln, officially, throughout the sad scenes, and 
on duty as Provost Marshal of the District of Columbia, under 
the direct personal orders of the Secretary of War, Hon. 
Edwin M. Stanton, which he carried out through the calamitous 
night. 

General O'Beirne, prefacing the delivery of General 

Rusling's written speech, as given in full below, said in part: 
INTRODUCING REMARKS by Gen. James R. O'Beirne 



''Before proceeding with the task assigned me by our un- 
tiring, efficient and indefatigable Chairman of the Executive 
Committee, Major William Plimley, and the members of the 
Third Army Corps Union, it may be beyond the proprieties 
for me to say that, originally. Major Plimley was to read to 
you the paper which I am about to voice, but his great tender- 
ness of heart, as well as delicacy of feeling, would not permit 
him, he feared, without breaking down, to place before you 
the pathetic, instructive and far-reaching sentences that em- 
balm a hallowed event, in which our great martyed President 
and our beloved Chieftain of the Third Army Corps were 
the enobled and renowed actors consecrating it as a dramatic 



act, one of the highest in the scenes of the RebelHon; and 
indeed I fear that I, too, may find myself overmastered by its 
thrilhng pathos. How I wish that General Sickles' address, 
with its lofty, soul-inspiriting eloquent sentences, to which we 
have just listened, in his affectionate salutation to his military 
family of the old 3rd Army Corps seated here about him, with 
their wives and families, their children and grandchildren, 
could be heard afar throughout the world, and not limited to 
this fascinating and charming arena. What a scene of wonder- 
ful human beauty and divine essence is here about us to con- 
template ; the great general, with his four score of years, that 
sit sweetly and lightly upon his noble front, and in full pos- 
session of his faculties, marking him as a genial, humorous, 
lovable patriarch, with the laughing spirit of a joscund boy, 
unimpaired alike in his appreciation of the current blessings 
of life, as in the love of his great manly strong heart, sending 
forth in a melodious accents his greetings to his glorious 
military family of heroes, gathered here about him. Bene- 
dictions be upon him, and may he be long spared to give cheer 
to us and enliven our descending years. I wish that instead of 
being delivered to this limited audience, his exhalted declara- 
tions of patriotism, lofty manhood and soul-stirring force 
could be heard and felt throughout the Republic, from Quoddy- 
head to the Golden Gate, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the 
Canadian Border, ringing throughout the hills and vales along 
the laughing rivers, up into the silent monitor mountains of 
America's broad expanse, telling them that the people's voice of 
great love of freedom is not yet weakened nor silenced ; that 
the martial spirit which, under God, saved the Country, its 
flag and its government, shall reverberate down the centuries, 
and in loud acclaim speak for "the Union now and forever, one 
and inseperable." 

Let us go forth anew from hence, with our vows renewed, 



and tell the children of the ages to come what the Third Army 
Corps Union did for them and posterity at Gettysburg. 

Address of General James F. Rtisling at the 46th Anniversary 

of the Third Army Corps, Union, Hotel Manhattan, 

New York. May 5, 1910. 

Sickles and Lincoln after Gettysburg; or 

Abraham LincoIn^s Religious Faith. 



Companions in arms, and Comrades of the Third Army Corps : 

I salute and greet you to-night, and bid you one and all a 
hearty hail and God-speed. What the Tenth legion was to 
Caesar ; what the Old Guard was to Napoleon ; this, and more, 
the Third Army Corps, under Sickles, was to the Army of the 
Potomac, and History will keep its splendid valor and brilliant 
achievements memorable forever. But I am to speak to-night 
not so much of these, but by invitation of your Committee 
am to tell of a memorable interview between our distinguished 
corps commander, Major-General Sickles and President Lin- 
coln, after the Battle of Gettysburg, in my immediate presence ; 
or as Virgil wrote, "Part of which I was and all of which I 
saw." I hold it to be of marked historic value, as fixing abso- 
lutely the Religious Faith of Abraham Lincoln, and as such I 
commend it to your consideration. 

It was on Sunday, July 5th, 1863, the Sunday after the 
Battle of Gettysburg. The battle, as you know, was fought 
heroically on both sides on July Ist, 2nd and 3rd. In the 
terrible conflict of Thursday, July 2nd, held by many to have 
been the real battle of Gettysburg, because of the titanic 
fighting and awful Confederate losses, which took the life 
out of Lee's army. General Sickles, while in active command 
of the Third Corps, had been frightfully wounded by a Con- 



federate ball or shell ; his right leg had been amputated above 
the knee on the field ; the next day or so he was carried by his 
men, on a stretcher, to the nearest railroad (some miles away) 
and the Sunday following, arrived in Washington. He was 
taken to a private residence on F Street nearly opposite to 
the Ebbitt House, where he had for several months reserved 
a floor for his own use. Here I found him on the first floor, 
reclining on a hospital stretcher, when I called to see him 
about 3 P. M. of that day. I was then Lieutenant Colonel 
and Chief Quartermaster on his stafif, and naturally eager 
to see "My General". The only other officer present was 
Captain Fry, also of his staff, now long since deceased. I 
found the General in much pain and distress at times, and weak 
and enfeebled from loss of blood; but calm and collected, and 
with the same iron will and clearness of intellect, that always 
characterized him in those Civil War days, and apparently 
always will. 

Naturally, we all three fell to talking about the battle, but 
had not been conversing long when General Sickles' orderly 
at the door announced "His Excellency the President", and 
immediately afterwards Mr. Lincoln strode into the room, 
acompanied by his little son "Tad", then a lad of ten or twelve 
years. He was staying out at the "Soldiers' Home" for the 
summer with his family. But having heard of General Sickles' 
arrival in Washington, he rode in on horseback, with a squad 
of cavalry as escort, to call upon him. He was tall and lanky ; 
he wore a high silk hat ("stove pipe"), a long frock coat of 
black broad cloth, high top boots with trousers inside and 
spurs on ; and altogether was about as ungainly a looking 
specimen of either statesman or cavalryman, as can well be 
imagined. The meeting between those two great men of that 
war period was cordial, though touching and pathetic; and it 
was easy to see they held one another in high esteem. They 



were both born American politicians, though of very different 
schools. They both loved the Union sincerely and heartily. 
and Sickles had already shown such high qualities, both as 
statesman and soldier, that Lincoln with his usual sagacity 
had been quick to perceive his value in the struggle then shak- 
ing the nation. Besides, Sickles was a prominent War Demo- 
crat, able and astute, and Lincoln was too shrewd to pass by 
any of these in those perilous war days, especially one who 

had raised a whole brigade of soldiers and placed them in the 
field, at his own expense, and commanded them ably and 
skillfully, as Sickles had done. 

Their first greetings over, Mr. Lincoln sat down and cross- 
ing his prodigious arms and telescopic legs, soon fell to cross 
examining General Sickles as to all the phases of the recent 
combat at Gettysburg. He inquired first, of course, as to 
Sickles' own ghastly wound, when and how it happened, and 
how he was getting on, and encouraged him. Sickles was 
somewhat despondent, very naturally; but Lincoln "jollied" 
him, and said that he was something of a prophet that day, 
and that he would prophesy it would not be long before General 
Sickles would be out and up at the White House, where they 
would always be glad to see him. He passed next to our 
great casualties at Gettsyburg, (equalling if not exceeding 
Wellington's at Waterloo) and how the wounded on both 
sides were being cared for ; and finally came to the magnitude 
of our victory there and what Meade proposed to do with it. 

Sickles lay on his stretcher, with a cigar between his fingers, 
pufiing it leisurely, and answered Mr. Lincoln in detail, but 
warily, as became so astute a man and so good a soldier ; dis- 
cussing the great battle and its probable consequences with 
a lucidity and ability remarkable for one in his condition — ex- 
hausted and enfeebled as he was by the shock of such a wound 
and amputation. Occasionally he would wince with pain, and 



call sharply to his valet to wet his fevered wound. But he 
never dropped his cigar, nor lost the thraed of his discourse, 
nor missed the point of their discussion. 

When Mr. Lincoln's inquiries ceased, General Sickles, after 
a pufif or two of his cigar in silence, renewed the conversation 
substantially as follows : 

''Well, Mr. President, parden me, but what do you think 
about Gettysburg? What did you think about things, while 
we were campaigning up there?" 

**0", replied Mr. Lincoln, "I did not think much about 
them. I was not much concerned about Gettysburg." 

"Why, how was that?" rejoined Sickles excitedly, as if 
amazed. ''We heard you folks down here in Washington were 
much worried, and you certainly had good cause to be, for it 
was 'nip and tuck' with us much of the time !" 

"Yes, I know that. And I suppose we were a little 'rattled' 
now and then. Indeed, some of the Cabinet talked of Wash- 
ington's being captured, and they ordered a gunboat here, and 
went so far as to send away some United States archives, and 
wanted me to go too, but I declined. Yes, Stanton and Welles, 
I believe, were both 'stampeded' somewhat, as we say out 
West, and Seward, I reckon, too. But, I said, 'No, gentlemen, 
I am not going aboard any gunboat; we are going to win at 
Gettysburg!' And we did, right handsomely. No, General 
Sickles, I had no fears of Gettysburg!" 

"Why, how was that, Mr. President? Why not? Every- 
body else down here, we heard, was more or less 'panicky'." 

"Yes, so I suspect, and a good many more than will own 
up to it now. But really. General Sickles, I had no fears 
of Gettysburg, and if you want to know why, I will try to 
tell you, confidentially. Of course, I don't want you to say 



anything about this now, nor Colonel Rusling here either. 
People might laugh, if it got out, you know. But the fact of 
the business is, in the pinch of the campaign up there, when 
we had sent General Meade all the soldiers we could rake and 
scrape, and yet everything seemed going wrong, Washington 
endangered, Baltimore threatened, Philadelphia menaced, and 
the whole country in an uproar, I went into my room one 
morning and locked the door, and got down on my knees, and 
prayed iVlmighty God for victory at Gettysburg. I confess 
I was at my very wit's end. I told the Almighty this was his 
country, and our war His war, but we could not stand another 
Fredericksburg, or Chancellorsville, or Peninsula campaign. 
And then and there I made a solemn vow with my Maker, that 
if He would stand by you boys at Gettysburg, I would stand 
by Him! I prayed, 'Oh God, have mercy upon me and my 
afflicted people ! Our burdens and sorrows are greater than 
we can bear ! Come now and help us, or we must all likewise 
perish ! And Thou canst not afford to have us perish ! We 
are Thy chosen people, the last best hope of the human race !' 
And so I 'wrestled' with Him, as Abraham or Moses in ancient 
days. 

And after so 'wrestling' with God, sincerely and devoutly, 
in solemn prayer, for a considerable time, I don't know how 
it was and I can't explain it (I'm not a 'Meeting man', you 
know), but some how or other a sweet comfort crept into my 
soul, that God Almighty had taken the whole business up there 
into His own hands, and things would come out all right at 
Gettysburg. And He did stand by you boys there, and now 
I will stand by Him ! No, General Sickles, I had no fears 
of Gettysburg, and that is why!" 

Mr. Lincoln said all this with great solemnity. When he had 
concluded, there was a silence, that nobody seemed disposed 



to break. Mr. Lincoln especially appeared to be communing 
with the Infinite One again, with a strange look of intro- 
spection upon his face, while General Sickles continued to puff 
his cigar, but more slowly. The first to speak was General 
Sickles, who presently resumed as follows : 

"Well, Mr. President, what do you think about Vicksburg, 
nowadays? How are things getting along down there?" 

*'0", answered Lincoln, very gravely. "I don't quite know. 
Grant is in command down there, and still keeps 'pegging 
away' at the enemy. And I rather think, as we used to say 
out in Illinois, he 'will make a spoon or spoil a horn' before he 
gets through. Some of our Senators and Congressmen think 
him slow, and want me to remove him. But, to be honest, 
I kind of like U. S. Grant. He doesn't worry and bother me. 
He isn't shrieking for reinforcements all the time, like some 
of our other Generals. He takes what soldiers we can give 
him, considering our big job all around, and we have a big 
job in this war, and does the best he can with what he has 
got, and does not grumble and scold all the while at me and 
Stanton like some others. Yes, I confess, I like General 
Grant, U. S. Grant, United States Grant, Uncle Sam Grant, 
Unconditional Surrender Grant. There is a great deal to 
him, first and last. And Heaven helping me, unless something 
happens more than I know now, I mean to stand by Grant a 
good while yet. He fights, he fights !" 

"So then, you have no fears to-day about Vicksburg either, 
Mr. President", added General Sickles. 

"Well, no, I can't say I have," replied Mr. Lincoln, very 
soberly but firmly, "the fact is — but don't say anything about 
this either just now — I have been praying over Vicksburg 
also. I have 'wrestled' with Almighty God, and told him how 
much we need the Mississippi, and how it ought to flow 'un- 



vexed to the sea/ and how its great valley ought to be forever 
free, and I reckon He understands the whole business down 
there, 'from A. to Izzard'. I have done the very best I could 
to help Grant, and all the rest of our generals (though some 
of them don't think so) ; and now it is kind of borne in on 
me, that somehow or other we are going to win at Vicksburg 
too. I cannot tell how soon. But I believe we will. For 
this will save the Mississippi and bisect the Confederacy, and 
be in line with God's everlasting laws of righteousness and 
justice. And if Grant only does this thing down there — I 
don't care much how, so he does it right — why Grant is my 
man and I am his the rest of this war !" 

Of course, President Lincoln did not at that moment know 
that Vicksburg had already fallen on July 4th, and that a 
United States gunboat was then speeding its way up the 
Mississippi to Cairo with the glorious news, that was soon to 
thrill America and the civilized world through and through. 
Gettysburg and Vicksburg! Our great twin victories of the 
Civil War ! What were they not to the Union in that fateful 
summer of 1863? And what would have happened to the 
American Republic had both gone the other way? Of course, 
I do not pretend to say, that Abraham Lincoln's faith and 
prayers saved Gettysburg and Vicksburg. But they certainly 
did not do the Union any harm. And the serene confidence 
of the beleaguered President, was an unspeakable comfort and 
joy on that memorable July 5, 1863. 

I never saw President Lincoln again. But this conversation 
made a deep and lasting impression upon me. I have told it 
hundreds of times since, both publicly and privately. It has 
passed into American and English histories, and gone around 
the world. Clearly it fixes the quaestio vexata of Abraham 
Lincoln's Religious Faith, unless he was a hypocrite and hum- 



bug, which is unthinkable. Perhaps I should add, I wrote 
home about it the same day, and now give it here as the very 
truth of history, much of it ipsissim averha. General Sickles 
himself, has also corroborated it substantially, on many oc- 
casions, both publicly and privately. I count it one of the 
chief honors of my life, that I was present and privileged to 
hear it. 

Mr. Lincoln's words left me the profound impression that 
in these great national emergencies, he walked and talked 
with his Maker and relied upon Divine counsel and guidance. 
Perhaps the crises of the Civil War, involving a whole con- 
tinent and a vast people, with world-wide and time-long results 
and its tremendous facts and responsibilities strengthened his 
faith in God as the Supreme Ruler of men and of nations, 
(As a like experience affected William of Orange and Crom- 
well and Washington). So that in the end Abraham Lincoln 
became a Ruler worthy to rank with even these "the pulse of 
twenty millions throbbing in his heart, the thoughts of all 
their minds articulated by his tongue." 

Of all the great figures of our Civil War, Lincoln alone 
looms up loftier and grander, as it seems to me, as the decades 
roll onward, and his place in the pantheon of history is secure 
forever. 

As Lowell said so well: 

"Our great captains, with their guns and drums, 

Disturb our judgment for the hour, 
But at last silence comes ; 

These are all gone and standing like a tower. 
Our children shall behold his fame. 

The kindly, earnest, brave far-seeing man. 



Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, 
New birth of our new soil, our first American." 

Or in the statelier lines of Alfred Tennyson, over the great 
Duke of Wellington, when he lay in state, beneath the dome of 
St. Paul's, with all England bowed in sorrow : 

"While the races of mankind endure. 
Let his great example stand — 
Colossal, seen of every land — 
And make the soldier firm, 
The statesman pure, 

Till in all lands, and through all human story. 
The path of duty be the way to glory. 
And let the land whose hearths he saved from shame. 
For many and many an age proclaim, 
At civic revel and pomp and game. 
And when our long illumined cities flame. 

Our ever loyal iron-leader's fame. 
With honor. Honor, Honor, honor — 
Eternal honor to his name. 



/ 



Speak no more of his renown. 
Lay our earthly fancies down; 
And in the great Cathedral leave him — 
God accept him ! Christ receive him !" 



TO MAJOR GENERAL DANIEL E. SICKLES, U. S. A. 

BY GENERAL HORATIO C. KING 

(Read at Third Corps Banquet, N. Y , May 5, '08.) 



Turn out the guard! The General comes, 

A grand old hero he. 
Our Bismarck, rugged, bold and strong, 

And young at eighty-three. 
"Don't mind the guaid!" those days are past 

We've long laid down our arms, 
And shining peace and plenty reign 

Where once rang war's alarms. 

I see him in the Nation's Halls, 
Where passion ruled the hour, 

And Southern madness sought to wrest 
From Northern hands the power 

To hold our country firm and strong; 
I hear his warning cry: 

"Come back! the nation you proclaim 



Is doomed to 


fail and die!" 




How memory spans the fleeting years, 


And we are 
When thro' the 


young again, 
sunny Southern 


fields 


We tramped, a million men! 
When ghastly war o'erspread th 


e land. 


And sorrow's piteous wail. 

And widows' sobs and orphans' 

Filled every hill and vale. 


tears 



I see him when the storm breaks forth, 

With patriotic zeal 
Call to his side a gallant host, 

No thought of woe or weal; 
Excelsior on their standard shone, 

Thro' long and bloody war. 
No stain upon that banner fell. 

No blots its records mar. 

I see him on that famous field, 

The bravest of the brave, 
Where Longstreet's legions strove to drive 

The Third Corps to its grave. 
The fight was bloody, fierce and long. 

And Sickles' name shall stay 
Forever in the Halls of Fame 

As he who saved the day. 

And Gettysburg his crest shall be, 

While veterans still will tell 
How stricken well nigh unto death, 

Him through that fire of hell 
They bore along the thinning ranks 

As calm and unafraid 
(Mid cheers that rang above the guns) 

As if on dress parade. 

Hail to the Chief, our loving friend, 

May many years be thine! 
We toast thee in our heart of hearts. 

And not alone in wine. 
The land for which you fought and bled 

Will cherish aye your name, 
And write it high among those born 

To everlasting fame. 



PRESENTATION 

OF THE 

HEADQUARTERS FLAG OF THE 

SECOND DIVISION OF THE THIRD ARMY CORPS. 



Major Lovell Purdy, of the 74th New York Volunteers, 
in a few well -chosen remarks, presented the original Head- 
quarters Flag of the 2d Division, 3d Army Corps (General 
Hooker's old Division), to the Hooker Association of Mass- 
achusetts. The Flag was received by General G. A. Goodale, 
President of that Association, in a touching and patriotic 
speech. A large delegation from Boston was present to salute 
the old flag under which they had marched and fought for so 
long a time. 



Major William P. Shreve, who has been Treasurer of the 
Third Army Corps Union during the past twenty-five years, 
has recently compiled from the original records and other 
sources a most interesting and valuable book entitled "The 
Story of the Third Army Corps Union." It is prefaced by 
an admirable likeness of our lamented and gifted Secretary, 
Col. Edward Livingston Welling, and by many biographical 
sketches and incidents relating to meetings of the Union. 

The book will be sent to members of the Union upon ap- 
plication to Major William P. Shreve, 147 Tremont St., 
Boston, Mass. 




